


Heart to Heart

by Jaune_Chat



Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Medical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-30
Updated: 2012-05-30
Packaged: 2017-11-06 07:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/416542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaune_Chat/pseuds/Jaune_Chat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce brings up a pointed question to Tony - asking why he hasn't tried to fix his broken heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart to Heart

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for avengerkink. Prompt is at the end.

"Tony, why haven't you done anything about that?" Bruce pointed at the circle of light glowing through Tony's t-shirt.

"Ah, I was wondering when you were going to get around to asking," Tony said, looking up from the open panel in the Mark VII. "I mean, I figured you'd be a lot more direct, what with the Jolly Green Giant and all, but if you wanted to tip-toe around the subject, who was I to deny you the pleasure leaving every newspaper article, medical journal, and abstract about cardiology around my house?"

Bruce dropped his hand and looked nonplussed for a moment at Tony's matter-of-factness. "Then... why?"

"Why should I? I'm doing pretty damn well, all things considered." Tony tweaked something inside the panel. "I should have died three years ago, but this saved me."

Bruce rubbed his temples briefly. Why did it have to fall to him to try to talk sense into Stark? The rest of the team had an unfair advantage in the persuasive department, but insisted Tony would only listen to someone who actually could medically back up all of their concerns.

"Yes, it did. _Three years ago_. When you were dying in a cave. But you're not there anymore, Tony."

"No, now I have a better one."

"A better fission reactor in your chest. Ever stop to think that that's not exactly healthy?" Bruce asked. "It nearly killed you last year."

"But it all turned out great in the end, so who's counting?"

"I am. Tony, you're not in Afghanistan anymore-."

"Oddly enough, I noticed that."

"-So why haven't you gotten yourself some help?" Bruce wanted to grab Tony and shake him, make him see what had Pepper up nights, what gave Steve ulcers in worry. What was driving Bruce a little crazy. -er.

Tony put down the screwdriver and stared right at Bruce. He didn't look conciliatory, or revelatory, or any other expression that meant that crucial light bulb had flickered on. Bruce wanted to scream. 

"What kind of help are you thinking about?" Tony asked mildly.

"Surgical. You have the time now to have doctors look at that shrapnel and get it out of you. It's possible, Tony, you know that."

Tony just nodded calmly and gestured for Bruce to go on. Lips pressed together for a second, Bruce did.

"Or an artificial heart. If you can design that," Bruce pointed at the arc reactor, "then I know damn well you can build yourself the best artificial heart ever seen."

Tony nodded again, and Bruce felt a brief flash of green at his casualness.

"Why haven't you even thought about it?" he demanded. "You're one of the smartest people I know. Just... please tell me you've considered-."

"Replacing my punctured meat-sack of a heart with a new and improved version? Yeah. All the time," Tony said. Bruce brought himself up short.

"You have?" Bruce blinked. "But why haven't you gone through with it?"

Tony's expression became distant. "When Yinsen was operating on me, he knew he had to keep me alive for the Ten Rings or he'd be killed. His family would have died for nothing if he couldn't save my life. He knew what those missiles, the ones I'd designed, did to people. And he did the best he could to pull all the metal out of my chest, but it wasn't enough." 

Tony stood and abruptly stripped off his shirt, no finesse. "So he cut out part of my sternum and put a steel pipe between my lungs, jerry-rigged a magnet to keep the shrapnel still -and remember this was in the middle of surgery in a cave when he was surrounded by people that would shoot him if it didn't work- and had to beg a car battery off of them on the off-chance it would keep me alive."

He twisted his chest plate and popped out the arc reactor just enough that Bruce could see how deep the hole in his chest was. Honestly, Bruce had seen people dead on the streets from gang violence and border wars who'd had smaller wounds in them.

"And it worked. He saved my life. I made a miniaturized arc reactor out of scraps in a cave, but he kept me from drying in the first place by saving my heart."

The green faded from Bruce's vision, and he slowly sat as Tony popped the arc reactor back in and put his shirt back on.

"Tony..."

"Did you know Rhodey's a test pilot?" Tony asked abruptly.

Bruce blinked at the non sequitur. "Who?"

"Friend of mine from MIT, my liaison with the military, he's a test pilot. I gave him a suit of my armor last year. Now don't get me wrong, Rhodey's damn good, but a year later I can still fly rings around him. You know why? Because I will always be able to make my armor lighter and more flexible than him because the power source is inside me. I ended up with a gift out of all that crap that happened to me, and I don't plan on wasting it."

Tony gave him a shit-eating grin, but it didn't cover up the pain lurking just below the surface. And Bruce got it. He understood.

"What happened to Yinsen?" Bruce asked.

"He died getting me out of there," Tony said shortly.

"That's what he said to you, didn't he? Not to waste-."

"Yes," Tony cut him off. Bruce waited a long time, carefully choosing his next words. 

"Making yourself a stronger heart doesn't waste what Yinsen did for you," Bruce said gently.

Tony sat back in his chair and tapped a finger against the arc reactor. "No, it doesn't. But..." He closed his eyes. "You know, people consider me to have all kinds of personality flaws."

"That's what the gossip rags say."

Tony gave him the ghost of a grin. "Even in Calcutta?"

"It sounds even worse in Bengali."

"Yeah, I bet they do." He sighed. "This reminds me of what I’m supposed to be doing with my life now. I thought you, of everyone else on this team, would get that. The Other Guy is never very far away. This isn't either." Another tap against the metal in his chest, and Bruce could almost feel an answering pain in his own.

"If you didn't have it, if you weren't in constant danger of infection and blood clots and _cardiac arrest_ , you still would remember every second of every day," Bruce said. "Believe me, those memories don't fade no matter how much distance you make."

Tony swallowed hard, eyes closed. "I know.”

“You don’t have to go at this solo anymore.” Bruce waited until Tony finally nodded. “Can I see the specs on your heart?”

Tony slowly moved to a terminal and brought up a diagram, the elegant lines of the artificial heart glowing solid in the air. Bruce wasn’t exactly an expert, but even he could see Tony had put the same care into it as he had every other of his creations.

“You can save yourself, too,” Bruce said earnestly. “I think even you’re allowed to do that.”

“Really?” Tony asked, his tone of voice indescribable. He put one hand over his arc reactor, like a child clutching a stuffed toy to protect himself against nightmares.

Bruce reached out and picked up the virtual reality heart, and placed it in Tony’s hand.

“Really.”

Tony stared at the heart for a long time before finally looking back up at Bruce. And smiled, holding it against his chest, trying it out for size. 

It was going to fit perfectly.

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt given was thus (Aye, and yes I know what the prompt calls for violates comic canon and medical realism, but we're all just going for FEELS here.):
> 
> Tony + Team. Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist but kind of an idiot .  
> Because by the time Avengers Assemble happens he's had almost 3 years with the arc reactor and he still hasn't done anything to stop himself from dying if it fails.
> 
> He's a billionaire, so why hasn't he just hired the most expensive surgeons on earth to remove the shrapnel from his chest? He's a genius, so why hasn't he applied his crazy intelligence to building the worlds most awesome artificial heart, you're telling me he can build a little medical detector to analyse heavy metal poisoning but he can't improve on existing artificial heart technology?
> 
> Instead he's wandering around with miniature fission reactor in his chest, a bunch of potentially lethal shrapnel only an inch away from killing him if the arc reactor fizzles out on him, not to mention the risks of infection and blood clots, because "No Tony, humans aren't meant to walk around with detachable reactors in their chest cavity."
> 
> Give me the team wondering why the hell Tony hasn't got his shit together and why he's just blissfully ignoring it like some sort of mindless fool. I think Bruce in particular would have an epic freakout of the almost big green and scary type.


End file.
